Strategy

Plazes adding more variety

Posted on by charlie

Plazes is a cool location service that cleverly is building a database of locations users go to, leveraging that info to make connections, and then some.

They started with a PC app for sniffing MAC addresses of routers.

Then they added a s60 app for smartphones to sniff cellIDs (I had a tiny role in that).

Now they are adding SMS (see note below).

I like the way they are doing things for at least 2 reasons:
1) They didn’t try to do everything possible in the first go. They started with the low-hanging fruit, go the service rolling, and are now adding new channels.

I call this ‘first go deep, then go wide’. We had a discussion about this at work, worried that ‘going wide’ – integrating and broadening the offering – would detract from ‘going deep’ – laser focus on making one thing the best damn thing. It’s a tough balance.

2) They are testing all sorts of channels. They started with an easy one, that wouldn’t disrupt one’s behaviour too much – a PC client, easy to work with. Then they upped it a bit – the mobile client needed to be put on the phone, there’s some behavioural change on the phone (really, how many times do you do something when changing cell towers?). Now they are asking the user to actively think about where they are, making them do the work (or at least that’s what I think the SMS channel will require).

I’ve asked to check it out. I haven’t been able to use the mobile version since I got my N93 (and now N73). This SMS version should work with any phone. I’d be interested in knowing what the usability will be like.

From the Plazes newsletter:

Good news for all Plazes users that like to use our service on the go,
but do not own a series 60 smartphone: The Plazes SMS gateway reached
alpha state! It enables the creation of Plazes, checkin / checkout to
Plazes and keeping track of your friends – all via SMS!

The Narrative

Loco about Loca

Posted on by charlie

John Evans and Mika Raento – think Merkitys and Jaiku, think hypercreative mobile craftsmen – and colleagues are onto another interesting project (link below).

It’s an interesting exploration into surveillance and exhibitionism, the balance between privacy and wanting to be seen.

Here are some photos of their adventures.

Link: Loca – About Loca.

Loca is a pervasive surveillance project that currently exploits Bluetooth technology. To best participate in the loca project you will need to set bluetooth to ‘discoverable’ on your cell phone.

…

As pervasive surveillance is potentially both sinister and positive at the same time, Loca’s intent is both playful and serious. It aims to raise awareness of the networks we inhabit, and provoke people into questioning them.

Loca asks how do people respond to being tracked and observed? How ready are people to observe others? Who is the user, and how? Do we get fear of surveillance, disinterest, scopophobia or scopophilia? How does contextual data relate to people’s everyday experiences? What happens in-between physical, embodied space and the digital space of abstract data?

Tips & Tricks

How to post to different services using the Nseries uploader

Posted on by charlie

The N93 came out with a nifty little uploader that is integrated into the send function on the phone (I now use it on an N73). I’m not going to get into the plusses or minuses of the uploader, but now that I work with a lot of the folks involved in it, I expect I can give some direct input into its evolution.

The uploader uses the same Atom protocol developed for the Lifeblog posting protocol. Hence, just as with Lifeblog, you can point the uploader to any service that understands the posting protocol.

The key thing is to know the Atom API entry point. You can set this URL in the uploader Setting, under Advanced. There you can set all the service provider entry points (see the ones I know of below).

Here are the services I have used the uploader for:

flickr
It comes preset with the flickr settings. On your side, you need to get the special password to do the posting (go to the flickr Lifeblog page).

Username: your login email you use for flickr
Password: the special ‘Lifeblog’, Atom password you can find on the flickr Lifeblog page
Web address: http://www.flickr.com/services/atom/

The Web address that is used as default is to post only to your flickr account. But, I like to post to flickr and then have flickr send it to my website. You set this in flickr somewhere, where it lets you determine where to automatically post your uploaded or emailed images. It’s called ‘flickr to blog’.

To set your uploader to use flickr to blog (or any of the other ones I mention below), you need to set up a new service provider in your uploader settings.

flickr to blog

Username: your login email you use for flickr
Password: the special ‘Lifeblog’, Atom password
Web address: http://www.flickr.com/services/atom2blog/

Since the whole Lifeblog protocol was worked out with the folks at Six Apart, you can also use the uploader to post to TypePad and Vox (I’ve never figured out how to do it to MoveableType, though).

TypePad

Username: your TypePad username
Password: your TypePad password (now, that makes sense)
Web address: http://www.typepad.com/t/atom/weblog/ (the same one preset in Lifeblog, natch)

Vox

Username: your login email you use for Vox
Password: your Vox password
Web address: http://www.vox.com/atom/

The uploader is smart enough to resolve all the sites you might have on your TypePad account. Also, I think it’s cute how the Vox account comes back named (for me) ‘charlie’s playground’.

A tip:
You can get to the uploader (at least on the N73) via the Gallery. There’s a ‘Open online service’ way down the Gallery Options menu.

Lifeblog or the uploader?
It depends.

Lifeblog is more ‘after the fact’, while the uploader kicks-butt in that it’s integrated into the camera ‘send’ menu item. So, the uploader makes it really easy to send up a photo, just after you’ve taken it.

But, the uploader doesn’t let you change the orientation of the photo before you upload – you need to actually edit the image first in the Gallery before uploading it. That’s not fun.

I’m used to Lifeblog which makes it really easy to rotate the image (easier than Gallery) and then upload a bunch of images at once. If you just want to upload a bunch of images at once, then you can do that from Gallery.

So, I guess, it depends on what photo you took, how you want to upload it.

That’s all for now. Feel free to comment and add other services and Atom entry points (them Web addresses), too. Just remember, I’m not providing support here (though I’ll try to help if I can). I’m just writing this stuff down because I had a hard time finding all this info and would like to have it in one place. And you can read up on how to do stuff with this uploader on flickr’s site. They have some nice guides.

BTW, these Web addresses also apply for Lifeblog. So, you can also set up Lifeblog to post to flickr and Vox in the same way.